The Synthesis of Yoga (2000-2001, Super school, Auroville) - Session 4 (25 October 2000)

Now we come to the question of Integral Yoga.

Integral Yoga is the integration of the aims of all the systems of yoga. Second, you integrate all the instruments. And thirdly you integrate all the processes. But if you unite all the processes of the different yogas it will be such a long process that it may not be finished in one lifetime at all, it will take many, many, many lives. Therefore it would seem that integration is impossible. There must be some other method. This is what Sri Aurobindo made a deep study about: how to integrate all the objects, all the instruments, all the processes? It is a very difficult question. Then he found out that all the processes whether they are from Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga or Jnana Yoga have one thing common to all of them: this is concentration. You don’t need to individually do all the processes, which are appropriate to every yoga. He found that the common principle in all the yogas is concentration. Then he found that concentration becomes perfect when you undertake two other processes. One is a process of purification. And the second is a process of development. You develop your faculties and you purify them. The more you purify the greater will be the concentration.

What is the meaning of purification? Purification consists of removing mixtures. You find that everything in us is mixed. Even if you want to think in purity you will find that in the time of thinking emotions will interfere, will will interfere, desires will interfere. So you should have a process of dispassionate thinking. This is a process of purification. Very often when you want to will, it becomes a mixture again. Will gets mixed with doubt. How can you will when there is a doubt? You have to purify your will and allow no doubt to interfere with your will. Then you can will properly—unmixed. When you have great emotion ideas begin to flicker in the emotions, so pure emotion is obstructed. Even while loving you doubt, intellectual doubts come. Your love also is affected. There should be purity of love, there is no mixture, love for the sake of love and nothing else, Then the love becomes powerful. First of all there is a removal of mixtures of the functioning of your faculties. You take every faculty and you purify it. When you exercise one faculty another faculty should not interfere. This is one process of purification. It is a long exercise but if you do this with regard to all the faculties, you have Integral Yoga. In the case of other yogas only one faculty is taken up and purified, others are only silent, they are not purified, they are just not allowed to function at all. If you are doing Jnana Yoga only the intellect is purified, but will and emotion are simply put aside. They are not purified, they are not developed. Therefore the result is only limited. But in Integral Yoga you purify your will, your emotions, your intellect, your body and your mind. It is an integral purification. If you know the process, then whenever there is a movement—if you are thinking, purify your thoughts, if you are having emotions, purify your emotion, if you are willing, purify your will at the same time, simultaneously. All this takes a shorter time. And each purification helps the purification of the other. If you purify the intellect, emotions also are purified, will also is purified. This is one aspect of purification. The mixture of functioning of different faculties is removed. Every faculty is tuned; purified. This is one process.

Second process is—there is always another mixture in our consciousness, a mixture of ignorance with everything. We will ignorantly, we think ignorantly, we love ignorantly. Ignorance is a great mixture. With everything and anything you do ignorance is present—in all the activities. Therefore in all activities, act with knowledge. Instead of ignorance illumine. Illumine everything, illumine your heart, illumine your mind, illumine your will, illumine your emotions. When you put a flame, everything is purified. Even physically when you put something in a fire it is purified. You have to put the fire of illumination, you have to think rightly, will rightly, love rightly. One general principle is Truth. The fire of Truth is the great power of purification, Burn, burn, burn all the time. A little spark will become then a seven tongue fire—this is the image of the Veda. In that purification, in the process of that fire, everything is thrown, all the impurities and they are burnt away. And you emerge pure, golden, and absolutely perfect. Sri Aurobindo has said that this purification means removal of mixtures and mixtures are of two kinds: mixtures of faculties and mixtures of all functionings with ignorance. That means integral purification. When all the faculties are clarified in their distinctions; when all the faculties are burnt with the power of the Truth ignorance is destroyed, then you get an integral purification and multiple tongues of fire begin to burn in your being. That is a very important process and when you do this your concentration is perfect. When there are no mixtures or no ignorance, concentration is automatic. You don’t have to sit down for hours and hours and hours like the kurma, the tortoise which withdraws to be able to dwell, it takes such a long time. We have a very easy process. This is what Sri Aurobindo discovered: if you purify yourself integrally your concentration becomes integral, perfect concentration.

The second process: development. Along with the process of purification you should also have a process of development, development of your intellect, development of your mind, of your emotions, of your will, will-power. If you develop all your faculties concentration is automatic afterwards. What you are doing now in this process, when you sit in this class you are developing your mind and your intellect very sharply. If you examine what you were six months ago and now you will find a tremendous upward movement that you have taken in the mind, everyone of you. How much has your intellect developed? Similarly you have to have exercises of development of the will. That also you should do. Whenever you have to will—I must study for five hours at a stretch, have the will and sit down and see who can disturb you for five hours of study with concentration. Develop this will. You decide that you will do it, again and again and again. You decide and having decided you hold to the resolution—Yes I will do it. It must be done. No excuse at all. I must not fall ill because very often our body is a very tricky thing. If it does not want to attend to something the body falls ill. Even if illness comes the body must say: “Even if I fall ill I will do it.” That is the power of the will. “In spite of everything and anything I will do it.”

Similarly, the emotions, intensity of emotions, very often people dry up the emotions. In our yoga all emotions are purified — not dried— intensified, so much intensified that all emotions become divine. It is by intensity. If you have a friend, the sense of loyalty in friendship, loyalty at any cost —that is called intensity of friendship. If you love you love intensely without reserve, deeply, no bargaining at all which often happens in love — I love you therefore you must do something for me. Not at all, no bargaining. If you love, love truly, intensely and you will find that it becomes Divine love. Human love is transformed into Divine love if you truly love. Don’t dry it away. Drying is the process by which you weaken; whereas you must develop the intensity. Purify and develop, purify and develop. In love there are lessons of jealousy, which is a horrible thing, so therefore it has to be sacrificed. Love without jealousy that calls for the intensity and purity of love. Not like Othello who is a wrong example of love.

Develop the body to the fullest extent: health, strength, and agility of the body. All these three things should be achieved. You can also add the beauty of the body. If you stand before the Divine you should be beautiful, even physically.

So these two processes: purification and development. Along with these two is the concentration. Concentration is the main thing and purity and development are the two instruments by which you can increase that concentration. Purification on the right side, development on the left side and at the center is the concentration. With this triple method you take all the instruments and apply the three methods, that is the secret of Integral Yoga. Instead of only one single faculty put all the faculties together. Then you don’t need to do so many exercises as in Hatha Yoga or in Raja Yoga, all other processes can be eliminated. Keep only these three processes: purification, development and concentration. Integral purification, integral development and integral concentration are the secret of Integral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo uses the word: “all receiving concentration”. In every process of concentration whether you are studying or playing or simply watching, receive the Divine all the time. The Divine is always pouring on you, that fact you must remember all the time. The rains of heaven are already on us. Only we are closed, we have opened umbrellas, so we don’t receive the pouring of the rains of the Divine. If you remove your umbrella and become absolutely open, it will become an all receiving concentration. The Divine will come to you from all the sides. The Divine will come to you through your will, your emotions, your intellectual discrimination, your body, your mind, through everything. Whatever you do, offer it to the Divine, remember the Divine, be with the Divine. This is the simple and the very complex process of an all receiving concentration. This is Sri Aurobindo’s discovery after years. For us it is now easy because we have the advantage of Sri Aurobindo’s great labor to find out what is the essence of every yoga and what can be eliminated so that in one life we can achieve the highest results. He found out that an all receiving concentration is the one formula.

And then you get the integral Divine. The aim will be to realize the integral Divine. In the case of Karma Yoga you know only the Will of God, in Jnana Yoga you know only the being of God, Bhakti Yoga you know only the love of God but if you want to know all the three together — the being of God, the will of God, the love of God— then Integral Yoga is necessary. When you do Integral Yoga you know all the three together. If you don’t know all the three together it is only because your process may be half way in one case, half way in another case and half way in the third case, in different proportions. You may be a great Karma yogi but very little a Jnana yogi then you will know the will of God but not the stuff of God, or know it only partly. But if you do Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga together — as Sri Aurobindo says, if you ride a chariot of three sets of wheels at the same time, simultaneously then you can see the speed with which the chariot will run and achieve the goal.

All that I have spoken to you is written in the Chapter 4 and 5 of the Introduction of The Synthesis of Yoga. I am reading to you a paragraph from page 37:

The synthesis we propose cannot, then, be arrived at either by combination in mass or by successive practice.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Synthesis of the Systems

You cannot do each yoga one by one. First you do Hatha Yoga, then you do Raja Yoga, then you do Jnana Yoga, etc. If you do them like that in succession it will be such a long process that it can never be finished. So Sri Aurobindo says that it cannot be done by successive practice nor by combination in mass. Simultaneously you do pranayama, asanas, pratyahara, dharana. It won't also be possible. Synthesis cannot be achieved either

The synthesis we propose cannot, then, be arrived at either by combination in mass or by successive practice. It must therefore be effected by neglecting the forms and outsides of the Yogic disciplines and seizing rather on some central principle common to all which will include and utilise in the right place and proportion their particular principles, and on some central dynamic force which is the common secret of their divergent methods and capable therefore of organising a natural selection and combination of their varied energies and different utilities. This was the aim which we set before ourselves at first when we entered upon our comparative examination of the methods of Nature and the methods of Yoga and we now return to it with the possibility of hazarding some definite solution.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Synthesis of the Systems

You neglect all the details of each yoga.

The synthesis we propose cannot, then, be arrived at either by combination in mass or by successive practice. It must therefore be effected by neglecting the forms and outsides of the Yogic disciplines and seizing rather on some central principle common to all which will include and utilise in the right place and proportion their particular principles, and on some central dynamic force which is the common secret of their divergent methods and capable therefore of organising a natural selection and combination of their varied energies and different utilities. This was the aim which we set before ourselves at first when we entered upon our comparative examination of the methods of Nature and the methods of Yoga and we now return to it with the possibility of hazarding some definite solution.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Synthesis of the Systems

I told you the common principles are purification, development and concentration. Sri Aurobindo says if you seize:

The synthesis we propose cannot, then, be arrived at either by combination in mass or by successive practice. It must therefore be effected by neglecting the forms and outsides of the Yogic disciplines and seizing rather on some central principle common to all which will include and utilise in the right place and proportion their particular principles, and on some central dynamic force which is the common secret of their divergent methods and capable therefore of organising a natural selection and combination of their varied energies and different utilities. This was the aim which we set before ourselves at first when we entered upon our comparative examination of the methods of Nature and the methods of Yoga and we now return to it with the possibility of hazarding some definite solution.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Synthesis of the Systems

How to arrive at a synthesis, integration of yoga? If you can seize upon one common principle, one dynamic power which is common to all then you will solve the problem.

Now we go to page number 40. This paragraph gives you that central secret when everything can be combined together.

The method we have to pursue, then, is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being into His. Thus in a sense God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sadhaka of the sadhana as well as the Master of the Yoga by whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection. In effect, the pressure of the Tapas, the force of consciousness in us dwelling in the Idea of the divine Nature upon that which we are in our entirety, produces its own realisation. The divine and all-knowing and all-effecting descends upon the limited and obscure, progressively illumines and energises the whole lower nature and substitutes its own action for all the terms of the inferior human light and mortal activity.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Synthesis of the Systems

These words “whole conscious being” are very important: will, intellect, body, mind, emotions, everything. “…being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him…” The reign of the Divine should pour upon you, so call Him “… in to transform our entire being into His.” We should be drenched with the waters of the Divine. Remove all obstructions by which we close our mind and body and life. If you open completely to the Divine then you should be drenched by the waters of the Divine. “…to call Him in to transform the entire being into His. Thus in a sense God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sadhaka of the sadhana…” If He enters into us much of our labour is gone because He will do the sadhana Himself. That is a great secret discovered, to allow the Supreme Himself to enter into us and do the sadhana. So that “in a sense God Himself, the real person in us, becomes the sadhaka of the sadhana as well as the Master of the Yoga by whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection.” This is a polished way of saying that you become drenched by the Divine. You become a centre of a divine transfiguration. Our lower personality, our head and body, all are drenched by the Divine waters, it becomes the instrument of its own perfection. This is the answer to this question.

If you do this—we are now coming to the end of the whole idea: what is Integral Yoga? Integral Yoga is the integration of all the aims, the instruments and the processes of the different systems of yogas, but in an integrated manner. Integrating manner is three fold: development, purification and concentration of all the faculties, of the whole being. Putting all the three into contact with the Divine, invite the waters of the Divine, be drenched then He will do everything else. If you do this on your part He will do the rest. That is the system of Integral Yoga. In one single life you can do all the processes. You can attain to the highest perfection if you follow this process.

Now there are three features of Integral Yoga. In this yoga there is no strict or rigid sequence. This is a very important statement. In Hatha Yoga first you do asanas and when you master this you do pranayama. In Raja Yoga you do first yama and niyama, then asanas, then pranayama, then like the tortoise, withdrawal from all the outside influences, then dwelling, then dwelling further, then absorption. In every yoga there is a sequence. In the Integral Yoga there is a sequence but there is no rigid sequence. If you ask: “What is the first thing I should do in this yoga?” There is no straight answer. If at all you insist a few things can be told but even there you find that you can do whatever is convenient to you. There are of course broad lines of development. You cannot jump straight to the Supramental. That you can’t do, supermind will come at the latest stage, but even there you can make jumps from one to the other, depending upon what your capacities are, what your state is. There is sequence but no rigid sequence. Whatever is convenient to you to start with, that you should do. If it is not easy for you to study, you will be allowed in this yoga. Don’t study. What do you like to do? Whatever you can do easily, whatever is your inclination concentrate on that, purify that and develop that. Then gradually a sequence will be built up. Once you take this up there will be a sequence developed but even there the sequence will not be rigid. If after sometime you say that you want to do something else that also is allowed. That is the real principle of free progress. In a rigid system of education first you must do this, then you must do this, it is a fixed syllabus. In the free progress system the syllabus is not fixed. Whatever you feel like doing you do it. After some time, if you want to do something else, do that. Integrate it with what you have done so far or don’t integrate and go to the third step. Allow your natural being to flow. Gradually you develop your faculties. The ultimate aim is to bring all your faculties into the picture. If this is not done ultimately you lose everything. Your aim should be all, everything should be developed, everything should be transfigured. This is the first characteristic of the Integral Yoga.

In this Integral Yoga there is no rigid sequence. There are people who are so active they cannot meditate at all. To them the answer is: don’t meditate, go on doing your work and offer your work to the Divine. That is a meditation of a different kind. Offering your work to the Divine is another kind of meditation. Do that kind of meditation; don’t sit quietly at one time, half an hour, one hour. Don’t do that. There are some people who are incapable of doing a lot of work. Their energies are not tuned to action. They like to meditate, reflect, contemplate, withdraw, retire, be quiet, silent. For them that is the method, they start with that. For others remembering the Divine, to sing the songs of the Divine, to praise the Divine, to live all the time in love of God, will be much easier for so many people. So they start with that. There is no rigid sequence that you must start with this or this or this. You start whenever you are, whatever you are. It is to such an extent that every individual will have his own system of yoga because every individual has his own combination of mind, life and body.

Therefore everybody will have, appropriate to himself, his own method. Synthesis of Yoga, Integral Yoga is one in which every individual will have his own system. There are millions and millions of ways of Integral Yoga; not just one. Therefore Integral Yoga cannot become a religion. Religion is a system in which one method is prescribed, one principle is introduced and you have to follow that one principle. Integral Yoga cannot become a religion because everyone is allowed to develop his own method so there is no religion at all. That is why Mother has said that it is impossible to make Sri Aurobindo’s teaching a religion. You cannot make it a religion if every individual has his own method of development. You cannot prescribe that everyone should do this. In religion all those who believe have to follow one method. In the Integral Yoga everyone has his own method, his own way of development. There are no two identical persons having the same system of yoga in Integral Yoga. For each individual the yoga develops as he moves forward. His method develops depending upon what is now prominent, what is easy, what is demanded by the force of your action and you go on growing on that side. Gradually all of them, like branches of a tree, will intertwine. Ultimately you become a beautiful lotus with all the petals growing together in a perfect manner. That is the aim. This is the first characteristic.

There are three outstanding features of this action of the higher when it works integrally on the lower nature. In the first place it does not act according to a fixed system and succession as in the specialised methods of Yoga, but with a sort of free, scattered and yet gradually intensive and purposeful working determined by the temperament of the individual in whom it operates, the helpful materials which his nature offers and the obstacles which it presents to purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the synthetic Yoga.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Synthesis of the Systems

These are very important words: free, scattered and yet gradually intensive and purposeful. This is the method, the special feature of Integral Yoga. It is determined by the temperament of the individual, according to the temperament of the individual, whether you are active or emotive or contemplative or a muscular man trying to do muscle building all the time. It depends on your inclination. Nothing is compulsory in this yoga. Ultimately everything is included but nothing is compulsory in the process

“… the helpful materials which his nature offers…” You have to find what is helpful in your nature. If it is easy for you to contemplate then that is your method. It is easy for you to love then that is your method. It is easy for you to work then that is your method. Depending upon your temperament what are the elements in your temperament.

“… the helpful materials which his nature offers and the obstacles which it presents to purification and perfection.” Purification and perfection come by development. Purification, development, concentration, these three methods are always present but where you apply them depends where your obstruction is, where your helpful material is.

“In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of Yoga.” This is the most important sentence. In Integral Yoga there is a different path for everyone. There is one beautiful sentence in the Bhagavad Gita: “As they approach Me so do I deliver.” “If you approach the Divine with love, He returns to you with love. If you want that the Divine should increase your power of work, He pours work in you. If you contemplate on Him He gives you a lot of peace and silence. Ye yatha mam prapadyante tan tathaiva bajamayaham.” “As they approach Me so do I respond to them.” If you think the Divine is angry with you He is angry with you; if you think the Divine is pleased with you He is pleased with you. You decide. Both are good. If you need the hand of Kali, think the Divine is angry with you and Kali will come and will break all your obstructions on the spot. If you want a soft, step by step process the Divine will do all the things that have to be done very softly, very tenderly, very affectionately. It depends on you, as you approach Him so He will deliver, so He will respond. And there are a million ways of approaching the Divine. That is why it is said: Integral Yoga has a million ways, there is no one way.

Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the synthetic Yoga.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Synthesis of the Systems

Although outwardly it may look scattered but behind it there is a method— not a rigid method but a sequence. There are three basic steps of this yoga. You may start anywhere but you have to pass three basic steps. Sri Aurobindo has spoken of them as the Triple Transformation — psychic, spiritual and supramental. Even there the process overlaps. It is not a rigid process. Even while you are in the psychic stage of development, the Supramental stage also can intervene suddenly. Or the spiritual stage can intervene. You may go first to spiritual and psychic may develop later. We shall see all this later on but still in a general way the basic thing is you develop the psychic then spiritual then Supramental. That kind of succession is not entirely impossible. In fact, it is very much in the picture. This is the shastra of Integral Yoga which is already written in your heart. It is the shastra of psychic transformation, spiritual transformation and Supramental transformation. Such is the scientific method of Integral Yoga.